F aculty of ogniti ve dences and Human Development
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL, JOB AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS TOWARDS JOB
SATISFACTION Al\'IONGST BANK EMPLOYEES
Ngui Chun Cheah
Bachelor of Science with Honours (Human Resource Development)
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
Grade: __~jt~
______
Please tick ('I/)
Final Year Project Report
0
Masters
D
PhD
D
DECLARATION OF ORIGINAL WORK
This declaration is made on the JQ:~ of J~!'!~. 2019 .
Student's Declaration:
I, Ngui Chun Cheah (56947) from Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development hereby declare that the work entitled "The Relationship between Individual, Job and Organizational Characteristics towards Job Satisfaction amongst Bank Employees" is my original work. I have not copied from any other students' work or from any other sources except where due reference or acknowledgement is made explicitly in the text, nor has any part been written for me by another person.
10106/2019
Date submitted gui Chun Cheah (56947)
Supervisor's Declaration:
I, Dr Victoria Jonathan hereby certifies that the work entitled "The Relationship between Individual, Job and Organizational Characteristics towards Job Satisfaction amongst Bank Employees" was prepared by the above named student, and was submitted to the "FACULTY" as a * partial/full fulfillment for the conferment of Bachelor Degree of Science with Honours (Human Resource Development), and the aforementioned work, to the best of my knowledge, is the said student's work.
Date: 10106/2019 Received for examination by:
I declare that Project/Thesis is classified as (Please tick (--J»:
o
CONFIDENTIAL (Contains confidential information under the Official Secret Act 1972)*DRESTRICTED (Contains restricted information as specified by the organisation where research was done)*
[1] OPEN ACCESS
Validation of Projectffhesis
I therefore duly affirm with free consent and willingly declare that this said Project/Thesis shall be placed officially in the Centre for Academic Information Services with the abiding interest and rights as follows:
• This Project/Thesis is the sole legal property of U niversiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).
• The Centre for Academic Information Services has the lawful right to make copies for the purpose of academic and research only and not for other purpose.
• The Centre for Academic Information Services has the lawful right to digitalise the content for the Local Content Database.
• The Centre for Academic Information Services has the lawful right to make copies of the Project/Thesis for academic exchange between Higher Learning Institute.
• No dispute or any claim shall arise from the student itself neither third party on this Project/Thesis once it becomes the sole property of UNIMAS.
• This Projectfrhesis or any material, data and information related to it shall not be distributed, published or disclosed to any party by the student except with UNIMAS permission.
'-_
Student's signature _ _ _ _
Ii.rW!f _ _____
(10/06/2019) Current Address:
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Jalan Datuk Mohammad Musa, 94300 Kota Samara han, Sal'awak.
Notes: * Ifthe Project/Thesis is CONFIDENTIAL or RESTRI CTED, please attach together as annexure a letter from the organisation with the period and reasons of confidentiality and restriction.
~The instrument is duly prepared by The Centre for Academic Information Services]
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL, JOB AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS TOWARDS JOB SATISF ACTION AMONGST BANK
EMPLOYEES
NGUI CHUN CHEAH
This project is submitted
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Science with Honours
(Human Resource Development)
Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development Ul\JIVERSITI MALA YSIA SARAWAK
(2019)
The project entitled 'The Relationship between Individual, Job and Organizational Characteristics towards Job Satisfaction amongst Bank Employees' was prepared by Ngui Chun Cheah and submitted to the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Bachelor of Science with Honours (Human Resource Development).
Received for examination by:
---
---~---
(Dr Vlcf6ria Jonathan) Date:Gred
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research would not have been successful without the great support, sacrifice and heartfelt contributions from various patties.
To my supervisor, Dr Victoria Jonathan, I would like to take this opportunity to express my utmost gratitude to you for your time, effort, professional guidance and patience from the beginning until the end of the research. You have given me impressive feedback for me to improve my work from time to time.
To my family, I appreciate all of the love, encouragement and resources that you have provided for me throughout the process. Without your unconditional support, this would not have been possible.
To my friends, great thanks to all of you who have been there and always helped me when I needed assistance. Thank you for the sharing of useful information.
Last but not least, I would like to thank all the bank employees in Kuching for their help and cooperation in completing the questionnaires.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... ... ... ... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ... .... iv
LIST OF TABLES ... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ... ... viii
ABSTRACT... ... ix
ABSTRAK...... ..... ......... .... .. .. .. ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... x
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study ... ... 1
1.2 Problem Statement ... ... ... ... ... .... ... 4
1.3 Research Objectives .... ... ... ... ... 8
1.3.1 General Objective ... ... ... .... ... ... 8
1.3.2 Specific Objectives ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 8
1.4 Research Hypotheses ... ... ... ... 9
1.4.1 Alternate Hypotheses .... ... ... ... 9
1.5 Conceptual framework ... ... ... .... . 11
1.6 Significance of the study ... ... .... ... ... 12
1.6.1 Existing literature ... ... ... 12
1.6.2 Human resource practitioners ... ... 12
1.6.3 Banking industry ... ... ... ... ... 13
1.7 Definitions of terms... ... ... ... ... 14
1.7.1 Mindfulness (individual characteristic) ... ... 14
1.7.2 Financial rewards Gob characteristic) ... ... ... ... 14
1. 7.3 Organizational commitment (organizational characteristic) ... ... ... ... .. ... 15
1.7.4 Job satisfaction ... ... ... ... 15
1.8 Conclusion... ... ... 16
CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Concepts of job satisfaction... ... 17
2.1.1 The importance of job satisfaction .... ... ... 18
2.1.2 The advantages of job satisfaction to the workplace ...19
2.1.3 The issues of job satisfaction...20
2.2 Determinants of job satisfaction ... ... ... 22
2.2.1 Individual characteristic: Mindfulness ... ... 23
2.2.2 Job characteristic: Financial rewards ... ... 24
2.2.3 Organizational characteritic: Organizational commitment.. ... ... 26
2.3 Discussion of theory .... ... ... ... ... ... ... 28
2.3.1 Herzberg's Motivator-Hygiene Theory ... ... ... 28
2.3.2 Vroom's expectancy theory ... ... ... ... 29
2.4 Discussion of empirical evidences ... ... ... 31
2.4.1 Discussion between Mindfulness and Job Satisfaction.... ... 32
2.4.2 Discussion between Financial Rewards and Job Satisfaction ... 33
2.4.3 Discussion between Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction ... ... 34
2.4.4 Literature matrix ... ... ... 35
2.5 Conclusion... ... 38
( II
~- - 0 ; . ; : : -~~- - - - . ' - - - - -=--- --:... CHAPTER THREE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Design of study ... ... ... ... 39
3.2 Population, sample and sampling procedure ... ... ... 40
3.3 Instrument... ...42
3.4 Validity & reliability ... ... ... ... .. 44
3.4.1 Pilot study ... ... ... ... 44
3.5 Data collection procedure .... ... ... 46
3.6 Data analysis procedure ... ... ... ... ... 47
3.6.1 Descriptive statistics ... ... 47
3.6.2 Inferential statistics ... ... ... 47
3.6.3 Normality test. ... ... ... ... ... ... 50
3.6.4 Hypothesis testing analysis ... ... ... 51
3.7 Conclusion.... ... ... ... ... ... ... 52
CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS 4.1 Demographic characteristics ... ... .... ... ... .. 53
4.2 Actual Study Cronbach's Alpha... ... ... 55
4.3 Spearman Correlation Coefficient Analysis ... ... ... ... ... 56
4.4 Multiple Regression analysis ... ... ... ... 57
4.5 Summary ... ... ... ... ... .... 59
4.6 Conclusion... ... ... 60
CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY, DISCUSSIONS, IMPLICATIONS/ RECOMMENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Summary of the study ... ... ... ... ... 61
5.2 Discussions... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... .... .... ... ... ... ... .. ... ... ... ... .... ... ... ... 65
5.3 Limitations of the study ... ... ... ... 71
5.3.1 Sample and area of research .... ... ... .... ... . 71
5.3.2 Factors covered ... ... 71
5.4 Implications/Recommendations ... ... ... ... 72
5.4.1 Existing literature ... ... ... ... ... 72
5.4.2 Human Resource Practitioners ... ... .... ... ... 73
5.4.3 Banking industry ... ... ... ... ... ... .. ... .... .... ... ... .... .. ... ... ... ... ... 74
5.4.4 Future Research ... ... 75
5.5 Conclusion... ... ... ... 76
REFERENCES... 77
APPENDIX A RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE... 93
APPENDIX B PILOT STUDY CRONBACH'S ALPHA... 97
APPENDIX C DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS... 98
APPENDIX D NORMALITY TEST... 100
APPENDIX E ACTUAL STUDY CRONBACH'S ALPHA... 101
APPENDIX F MEANS AND STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF QUESTIONNAIRE ~~ITF.MS ... 102
APPENDIX G SPEARMAN'S CORRELATION COEFFICIENT... 104 APPENDIX H MULTIPLE REGRESSION... ··· ... 105
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
- - - - - - - - = - - - -
LIST OF TABLES
Table Literature Matrix of the Study ... ... ....35
Table Summary of Research Questionnaire ... ... ... ... 42
Table Results of Pilot Study ... ... ... ... ... ...45
Table The Scale of the Correlation Strength ... 49
Table Results of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test.. ... ... 50
Table Hypothesis Testing of the Study ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 51
Table Summary of Respondents' Demographics Characteristics (N=1 07) ... 54
Table Results of the Actual Study Cronbach 's Alpha ... ... 55
Table Results of Spearman Correlation Coefficient... ... ... ... ... ... .. 56
Table Modal Summary of Multiple Regression ... ... 57
Table Anova of Multiple Regression ... ... ... ... 57
Table Multiple Regression Coefficients ... ... 58
Table Summary of Hypothesis Testing... ... ... 59
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 Conceptual Framework of the Study ... ... ...... ... ... ... ... ... 11 Figure 2 Flowchart of the Data Collection Procedure .... ...... .. .. .. .. .. .46
• - - - - --=
ABSTRACT
Despite many research has been conducted on the determinants of job satisfaction, little research has particularly focused mindfulness's role in the workplace; the significance of financial rewards in organizational psychology and its causal relationship with organizational commitment. To fill in the research gap, this study aims to determine the relationship between individual (mindfulness), job (financial rewards) and organizational (organizational commitment) characteristics towards job satisfaction amongst bank employees. With the quantitative survey approach, 160 questionnaire were distributed to employees in four banks in Kuching, \\lith a return rate of 84.38% and the total usable questionnaires of 107. The data collected was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. Spearman Correlation analysis showed that the positive strong and significant relationship between mindfulness [rho(l07)
=
.74, P < .01], financial rewards [rho(107)=
.84, p < .01]and organizational commitment [rho(107)
=
.84, p < .01] towards job satisfaction. Moreover, the Multiple Regression analysis portrayed that 79% of the variance in job satisfaction can be explained by the independent variables. It was discovered that the most dominant factor to predict job satisfaction is organizational commitment [Beta = .40, P < 0.01], followed by financial rewards [Beta = .34, P < 0.01] and mindfulness [Beta = .22, P < 0.01] . Therefore, it is recommended to implement human resource policies and practices that incorporate the element of affective commitment, fair performance-based rewards system and mindfulness activities in the banking industry.Keywords:job satisfaction, mindfulness, financial rewards, organizational commitment
- - - - - -
.•
ABSTRAK
Walaupun banyak penyelidikan telah dijalankan ke atas penentu kepuasan kerja, penyelidikan terdahulu kurang menumpukan peranan kesedaran minda di tempat kerja;
kepentingan ganjaran kewangan dalam psikologi organisasi dan hubungan kausal dengan komitmen organisasi. Untuk mengisi jurang kajian, kajian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan hubungan an tara individu (kesedaran minda), pekerjaan (ganjaran kewangan) dan organisasi (komitmen organisasi) ke arah kepuasan kerja dalam kalangan pekerja bank.
Dengan pendekatan kaji selidik kuantitatif, 160 borang soal selidik telah diedarkan kepada para pekerja di empat bank di Kuching, dengan kadar pulangan sebanyak 84.38% dan jwnlah borang soal selidik yang boleh digunakan adalah sebanyak 107. Data yang dikumpul dianalisis menggunakan Pakej Statistik untuk Sains Sosial (SPSS) versi 20. Analisis korelasi Spearman menunjukkan bahawa positij dan signifikan antara kesedaran minda [rho(J 07)
'" .7.1, p <.01], ganjaran kewangan [rho(l07) = .84, p <. 01J dan komitmen organisasi
[rho(10 7) = .84, p <.OlJ dalam menentukan kepuasan kerja. Selain ilu, analisis Pelbagai Regresi menunjukkan bahawa 79% varians dalam kepuasan kerja dapat dijelaskan oleh pembolehubah bebas. Faktor yang paling dominan untuk meramalkan kepuasan kerja ialah komitmen organisasi [Beta
=
.40, P <O.OlJ, diikuti oleh ganjaran kewangan [Beta=
.34, p<O.Ol} dan kesedaran [Beta = .22, p < 0.01). Oleh itu, kajian ini memberi cadangan untuk l1Ielaksunakan dasar dan am alan sumber manusia yang menggabungkan elemen komilmen
(~rektit: sistem gunjaran berasaskan prestasi add dan aktiviti kesedaran minda dalam industri perbanka11.
Kala kunci: kepuasan kerja, kesedaran, ganjaran kewangan, komitmen organisasi
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the background of study, identifies the problem statements, states the research objectives, formulates the reseach hypotheses, illustrates the conceptual framework, explains the significance of study, defines the terms and provides the conclusion.
1.1 Background of Study
To date, there are thousands of studies have been carried out on the topic of job satisfaction worldwide (Agarwal & Sajid, 2017). Job satisfaction, the positive feelings of people towards their job (Armstrong, 2006), is one of the most researched topics (Spector, 1997) due to its implications on improved employee engagement (Saeed, Waseem, Sikander
& Rizwan, 2014) and higher employee retention (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2015) at the
workplace. In the long term, job satisfaction may enhance an organization's effectiveness (Koys, 2001) and competitiveness (Millan, Hessels, Thurik & Aguado, 2013).
Kamal and Sengupta (2008) articulated that job satisfaction is imperative when it involves bank employees. To attend to the customers' inquiries, requests and expectation, bank employees are constantly obligated to have interactions and communications with them (Hooi & Ali, 2017). Contented employees are crucial to the production because they have higher levels of engagement and collaboration (Bader, Hashim & Zaharim, 2012). As a result, this could positively impact the organizational profits (Aronson, Laurenceau, Sieveking &
Bellet, 2005; Eyupoglu & Saner, 2009; Yongbeam, 2013).
Issues may arise when the employees are experiencing job dissatisfaction. These can include absenteeism, employee turnover and counterproductive behaviours. Job dissatislaction is linked to the increase of the tendency of absenteeism and leave the organization (Wright & Bonett, 2007) because dissatisfied employees may feel unappreciated by the organization (Chelladurai, 1999). Furthermore, job dissatisfaction may cause
--- -;.,;...;.
employees' deviant behaviours such as psychological withdrawal, theft at work and tardiness (Spector et aI., 2006), which can be costly to the organization (Bowling, 2010). Therefore, the employee job satisfaction should be taken care of by employers at the workplace.
Many factors may contribute to the employees' job satisfaction. Researchers from the University of Minnesota summarized the factors of job satisfaction into 20 dimensions, namely skills utilization, personal achievement, activity, career advancement, authority, company policies, compensation, relationship with co-workers, creativity, independence, moral values, recognition, tasks responsibility, job security, social status, social service, supervision from human relations, technical supervision, job variety and working conditions (Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofquist, 1967). Ting (1997) divided the factors of job satisfaction into three groups, namely the individual characteristics (demographics), job characteristics (pay satisfaction, task clarity, skills utilization and promotional opportunity) and organizational characteristics (organizational commitment). Similarly, Lambert and Paoline III (2008) categorized the factors of job satisfaction into individual characteristics (demographics) job characteristics (role strain and job variety) and organizational characteristics (formalization, instrumental communication and promotional opportunity).
In recent decades, the individual characteristic, namely mindfulness, the state of being conscious has been raised as an important determinant of job satisfaction (Hiilsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt & Lang, 2012). Being mindful is pivotal whether in the high stakes or low stakes of jobs (Glomb, Duffy, Bono & Yang, 2011). For example, in the health care industry,
Mesmer-Magnus, Manapragada, Viswesvaran and Allen (2017) mentioned that a medical doctor without mindfulness may wrongly prescribe the medicine to the patients or misdiagnose the patients' symptoms. In another example, the bank employees may make mistakes in doing monetary transactions without mindfulness (Mesmer-Magnuset et aI. , 2017). Therefore, mindfulness is an important characteristic to help the employees to
·
- -_ .
concentrate on the current task, improve job satisfaction and result In a better job performance (Hansen, Lundh, Homman & Wangby-Lundh, 2009).
Besides that, job characteristics are associated to an individual's specific job that is being done (Hackman & Lawler, 1971). Although job characteristics are often related to the Job Characteristics Model, job characteristics may also comprise other features such as the level of pay, communication, contribution, training, teamwork, morale and average time to promotion (Neuman, 2014; Ting, 1997). This research particularly focus on the financial rewards, which is known as the instrumental value exchange that is highly tangible. Previous empirical research revealed that employees may perceive financial rewards as the determinant of job satisfaction in different occupations (Sajjad Nazir, Wang, Muhammad Naseer Akhtar, Amina Shafi & Nadia Nazir, 2015) and different countries (Huang, 2016; Suh, Diener, Oishi & Triandis, 1998).
Scholars who are involved In human relations aspect maintain that individuals' experience with respect to the organizational environment is in shaping their job attitude (Lambert & Paoline III, 2008). Thus, job satisfaction may not only be determined by the individual and job characteristics, but it can also be related to the work units and organizations such as organizational commitment and interactions with colleagues and supervisors (Ting, 1997). In the recent decades, there has been a rising attention of research on Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) to produce happy, motivated and satisfied employees (Kasa & Hassan, 2017; Organ, Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 2006). Thus, organizational commitment acts as the pivotal indicator of OCB (Bolino, Hsiung, Harvey &
LePine, 2015) is vital to be studied because it can lead to job satisfaction (Hafiz, 2017).
Therefore, this study intents to determine the relationship between mindfulness (individual characteristic), financial rewards (job characteristic) and organizational commitment (individual characteristic) towards job satisfaction amongst bank employees.
1.2 Problem Statement
Although a number of research has been conducted across the world on the determinants of job satisfaction, researchers show little interest in studying the differences bt:tween individuals (Franek & Vecera, 2008). Previous studies conveyed that the individual characteristics such as demographics have little value in understanding job satisfaction (Carian, 2007). Ho\vever, the emergence of the individual characteristic, mindfulness in recent decades as a major determinant of job satisfaction (Htilsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt &
Lang, 2012) has caught the researcher's attention because it can enhance the employees' job satisfaction (Schultz, Ryan, Niemiec, Legate & Williams, 2015).
Glomb, Duffy, Bono & Yang (2011) highlighted that there is a potential role of mindfulness to contribute to the employees' job satisfaction and consequently improve the psychological health of employees at the workplace. Despite the previous literature had indicated that mindfulness has a positive contribution to clinical and nonclinical populations, linle research has particularly focus its role in the workplace other than the health care centre (Schultz, Ryan, Niemiec, Legate & Williams, 2015). Therefore, this study may shed light on the importance of mindfulness to improve the employees' job satisfaction.
Besides that, Htilsheger et al. (2012) did a study on 219 participants who worked in the service industry in the Netherlands and the part of Belgium that speaks Dutch. The participants filled up a diary for five consecutive work days. To avoid method bias, mindfulness was assessed right after work while job satisfaction was assessed late in the evening. The result showed that the participants' mindfulness is positively related to their job satisfaction (Htilsheger et aI., 2012). However, Vaculik, Vytaskova, Prochazka and Zalis (2016) revealed that mindfulness has no relationship to job satisfaction in a study which in\'olved 241 participants with the only condition of being adult workers in the Czech Replublic. These two studies produced a contrast correlation between mindfulness and job
satisfaction. Thus, the contradictory findings of the past empirical research show a need to study this correlation.
Other than the job characteristics in the Job Characteristics Model proposed by Hackman and Oldham (1975), there are features such as the financial rewards as the job characteristic (Neuman, 2014). Judge, Piccolo, Podsakoff, Shaw and Rich (2010) commented that little research has examined the relationship between financial rewards and job satisfaction in organizational psychology. Thus, this study can determine the significance of financial rewards towards job satisfaction from an organizational psychology perspective.
Moreover, some scholars came to challenge that the empirical findings based on the relationship are inconsistent (Huang, 2016; Sajjad Nazir et aI., 2015). For instance, Jehanzeb, Rasheed, Rasheed and Aamir (2012) found that there was a significant relationship between financial rewards and job satisfaction amongst 568 bank employees in the banking sector of Saudi Arabia. Likewise, Noraani Mustapha (2013) discovered that there was a signifant relationship between the two variables amongst 320 lecturers in four public universities in Kelantan, Malaysia. In addition, there was a research carried out by Huang (2016) in comparing the extent where monetary rewards can link to job satisfaction between the employees in the United States and China. The respondents comprised 330 respondents from China (194 researchers and employees in a manufacturing company) and the Southwestern United States (136 employees and students in a university). Interestingly, the results did not go parallel with a positive significant relationship but depicted that money did not increase job satisfaction in the United States while money can only slightly improve satisfaction in
China. Therefore, this study focuses to fill in the empirical gap of this correlation.
Mowday, Porter and Steers (2013) mentioned that employees who are experiencing job dissatisfaction may portray undesirable behaviors on the job and reduce their organization commitment in the workplace. Conversely, the organizational characteristics such as
· ~~---
organizational commitment play a significant role in enhancing the employees' job satisfaction and shaping the desired job attitude (Lambert & Paoline III, 2008). In spite of the fact that many scholars have investigated the correlation between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, the causal relationship between these two variables is in vague and not consistent (Akhtar, Durrani & Hassan, 2015; Vandenberg & Lance, 1992).
Furthennore, from an attitudinal perspective, there is a consensus that the research works in studying the multidimensional variable of commitment are still not conclusive (Ramalho, Luiz & Oliveira, 2018). Moreover, Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch and Topolnytsky (2002) highlighted the necessity of investigating commitment because it is a behavioral phenomenon that links the individual to a specific course of action. Moreover, organizational commitment can be the determinant as well as the consequence of job satisfaction (Vandenberg & Lance, 1992). Hence, this study can add new knowledge to the existing literature on the relationship between these two variables.
There are also contradictory past findings on the relationship between these two variables. For example, Anis, Rehman, Rehman, Khan and Humayoun (2011) carried out a study on 320 employees from six pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan with the results indicated that organizational commitment has a positive strong and significant relationship with job satisfaction. Similarly, Pereira, Veloso, Silva & Costa (2017) probed into the relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction amongst 105 professionals that included clinical secretaries, nurses and doctors in six Family Health Units in the North Portugal. The results registered a positive strong and significant relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction. On the other hand, Culibrk, Delic, Mitrovic and Culibrk (2018) did a research on 566 employees from eight public and private companies in the manufacturing and service industries located in Serbia, Eastern Europe. It was concluded that the organizational commitment did not significantly correlate with job
satisfaction. Their results contradicted with studies conducted in developed economies which had suggested that organizational commitment has a positive strong and significant relationship with job satisfaction (Culibrk et al., 2018). Thus, the contradictory findings provide a need to examine this correlation.
From the perspective of practical gap, Jegan and Gnanadhas (2011) claimed that employees' job satisfaction would determine a business' success regardless of the public or private sector. Bader, Hashim and Zaharim (2012) pointed out that understanding the factors affecting job satisfaction can help the policy makers in the organizations to formulate and improve future policies and practices. Meanwhile, this research targets to enhance the pragmatism of the organizations ' future policies and practices. As a result, these efforts may effectively improve their employees' job satisfaction and productivity (Yongbeam, 2013). In addition, Proctor and Velkova (2017) suggested that improved job satisfaction can stimulate the organizational growth and provide greater employment opportunities, which may encourage prosperity for the community. Therefore, one of the objectives of this study is to bridge the practical gap by contributing to the management in organizations to design a better working environment for their employees with consideration of their job satisfaction.
1.3 Research Objectives
In this section, the objectives of the research have been sub-classified into two parts, namely the general objective and the specific objectives.
1.3.1 General Objective
The general objective of this research is to identify the relationship between individual, job and organizational characteristics towards job satisfaction amongst bank employees.
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of this research are:
I. To determine the relationship between mindfulness (individual characteristic) and job satisfaction.
II. To determine the relationship between financial rewards (job characteristic) and job satisfaction.
HI. To determine the relationship between organizational commitment (organizational characteristic) and job satisfaction.
IV. To determine a dominant factor amongst mindfulness (individual characteristic), financial rewards (job characteristic), and organizational commitment (organizational characteristic) towards job satisfaction.
· ~
1.4 Research Hypotheses
There are four alternate hypotheses in this research, which are formulated to fulfill the research objectives.
1.4.1 Alternate Hypotheses
Ha1: There is a significant relationship between mindfulness (individual characteristic) and job satisfaction.
Much empirical evidence has implied that the mindfulness has a significant relationship towards job satisfaction (Hulsheger et a!., 2012; Vaculiket et a!., 2016). The relationship is significant in the health care industry, defence industry and the banking industry (Mesmer-Magnus et a!., 2017).
Hal: There is a significant relationship between financial rewards (job characteristic) and job
satisfaction.
Many scholars have unveiled that financial rewards can result to the positive job satisfaction of employees (Bustamama, Sze & Abdullah, 2014; Noraani Mustapha, 2013;
S~jjad Nazir et aI., 2017).
Ha3: There is a significant relationship between organizational commitment (organizational characteristic) and job satisfaction.
Anis, Rehman, Rehman, Khan and Humayoun (2011) discovered that organizational commitment has a strong positive relationship with employee job satisfaction. Furthermore, Pereira et a!. (2017) supported this finding.
·
- ----Ha4: There is a dominant factor amongst mindfulness (individual characteristic), financial rewards (job characteristic) and organizational commitment (organizational characteristic) towards job satisfaction.
To investigate the relationship between individual, job and organizational characteristics towards job satisfaction, Ting (1997) carried out a study with the data obtained from the Survey of Federal Government Employees from November 1991 to February 1992 on the white-collar workforce. Lambert and Paoline III (2008) further supported this conceptual framework with a study on 1 062 prison employees from the Orange County Corrections Department (OCCD) in Orlando, Florida in the United States. The results substantiated that both job and organizational characteristics are more important than the individual characteristics in shaping the occupational attitude of job satisfaction (Lambert &
Paoline III, 2008).
- - - -
..
1.5 Conceptual framework
The conceptual framework is adapted from the studies conducted by Ting (1997) and Lambert and Paoline III (2008). This framework is to determine the relationship between individual, job and organizational characteristics towards the bank employees' job satisfaction (see Figure 1).
Independent Variables
Mindfulness
•
(individual characteristic)
•
FinancialDependent Variable rewards Gob
I characteristic)
•
Job satisfactionOrganizational
•
commitment
I ( organizational I characteristic)
Figure 1 Conceptual Framework of the Study
